Q&A: Natalie Zea of The Following

Turns out we've been big fans of Natalie Zea and didn't really know it. The actress is something of a staple on the kind of television series men watch, having appeared on The Shield, Hung, and as a series regular as Timothy Olyphant's ex-wife on Justified. And now this month she's starring alongside Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy in Fox's gruesome new thriller, The Following. We talked to her on the phone recently about her penchant for good TV and her comedy chops.

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ESQUIRE.COM: I caught a couple episodes of The Following. This is a gruesome show.

NATALIE ZEA: That's what they say.

ESQ: But you and Kevin Bacon are great on it. You're on Justified as well. How'd this come about?

NZ: I started out on Justified as a regular for two seasons and then we talked about the idea, for season three, of sticking around for a few episodes to wrap the character up. While I was wrapping her up, I was looking for a new project, and this one came along pretty early on. So early that we really didn't know what was happening with it. I was told to read it because it was so good and so solid, and I did, and it sort of went away and came back again. And it kept coming back in my life. I had a meeting with Kevin Williamson and then a breakfast meeting with Kevin Bacon, and, you know, the two of them are really hard to say no to individually. And when you put them together you kind of don't have a choice. It was a pretty easy sell.

ESQ: So you're now one degree away from Kevin Bacon.

NZ: I guess that's the number. I'm not really sure how that works. I think you're right.

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ESQ: I was watching some of the things you're in. I didn't realize you were Christinith in The Other Guys [watch scene above].

NZ: Yeah, that was on the other night. I haven't seen it since it was in the theater, and I happened to catch myself, which is always such a strange and surreal experience — when you're flipping channels and you see yourself staring back at you unexpectedly.

ESQ: That scene cracks me up. You're hysterical.

NZ: I've actually done a lot of comedy. I think especially when you're on TV, once you become associated with one genre or the other, it's near impossible to break into the other one, even if you have experience with both. I was in a meeting a couple years ago at CBS, and I expressed interest in comedy and everyone looked at me like I had two heads. And I couldn't understand why, and one of the guys said, "You know, you're everyone's go-to drama girl." And I said, "That's lovely and flattering, but I also went to acting school." I'm not a one-trick pony.

ESQ: You're screaming at Mark Wahlberg.

NZ: That was so much fun. My abs were like needles the next day, they hurt so bad from laughing.

ESQ: Can you talk a bit about The Following?

NZ: It's a show at its most basic level about good and evil. It's about the good guy and the bad guy, and there's always gotta be a girl, and I'm that girl who's sort of sandwiched between these two extremes. My character was married to Joe Carroll. Kevin Bacon's character, Ryan Hardy, was a huge part in getting him put away. We have a relationship that's sort of unrealistic. It falls apart. All this is taking place in the past. Ten years after the fact, Joe escapes from prison and Ryan is asked to come back on the case. It opens up room for Ryan and Claire, and then Joe Carroll gets thrown back in the mix, so we're all kind of back where we were a decade ago. Fox is doing such an incredible job of promoting the show.

ESQ: Yeah. Those Edgar Allen Poe masks were sent to our office.

NZ: Oh, that's so creepy!

ESQ: An intern snatched them up. He was very excited.

NZ: There are a couple on the makeup trailer. They just taunt you.

ESQ: When you're doing those scenes, are you reminded of your soap-opera days?

NZ: Yes and no. Yes in the melodrama aspect of it. No in the sense that this is much better-written. I have so much fun doing scenes with them. We don't hold back and again, it's why actors become actors. They get to do that kind of stuff.

ESQ: It's intense. People's eyes getting gouged out. Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy. What's it like working with them? How different are they?

NZ: I don't find them to be all that different. They're up for anything. There's a lot of thinking on one's feet. Both of those guys are so good at that. James and I tend to be, in the best possible way, on the side of melodrama. And then with Kevin, there's a lot more subtlety going on.

ESQ: Were you a intimidated by going to work with Kevin Bacon?

NZ: No. Have you met him?

ESQ: No.

NZ: Any intimidation or tendency to be star-struck goes away within the first thirty seconds you meet the guy. He understands the power he wields. He's an ideal acting partner. He's so private, and you forget that he's an icon.

ESQ: It's surprising to see Kevin Bacon on a network TV show.

NZ: Every year during pilot season there's a huge name people talk about. I had already read the script and again, it was rather early. The news came up that he had signed on. I was really surprised because big stars like that tend to want to do cable shows, and his intention was something on cable, but I guess he started reading scripts, and from what I've heard him say, he couldn't tell the difference between cable and network because they were all just so good. And I agree. I think television scripts have become really intriguing and well-done. And writers have stopped drawing any actual line between film and television they used to never cross.

ESQ: Between this show and Justified and Hung, you've been pretty present in this golden age of television.

NZ: I've been so fortunate. When I started, I had a really hard time getting work. It was the mid- to late-nineties. There was the WB. My age was perfect for it, but I just never came across as a youngster. I had to grow into my age in order to start working, and by the time I did, it was when things started to get good.

ESQ: Did you film your episodes on Hung in Bloomfield Hills [a Detroit suburb]?

NZ: I was there twice. I never went inside Detroit proper.

ESQ: I was just curious. I'm from there.

NZ: It's a lovely little town. Is it a town or like a suburb?

ESQ: It's a suburb but like its own city. Are you going to be on season four of Justified?

NZ: I am. That is affirmative.

ESQ: And any more comedy stuff coming up?

NZ: I'm lining up some stuff, because apparently that's how you have to do it these days.